The Siths of Our Lives

In Which a New Adversary Is Revealed

20

SEP/11

Hannik, Kage, and Nyx were joined by a new companion, a Mandalorian named Jayne Reegar. The mysterious bounty hunter had been hired by Darth Dremenis to help on their latest mission. A fellow Sith Lord had passed on to Dremenis a distress message from a nearby Republic ship. The message explained that a conduit had blown out, badly injuring those on board and disabling engines and long-range communications. Dremenis also had intelligence that indicated that this ship was carrying valuable advanced weapons and armor, which he wanted the team to recover.

The party set out in Hannik’s ship, soon reaching the nearby Republic vessel. They docked in the landing bay and were immediately attacked by droids. As the battle went on Jayne badly damaged many droids, but Kage kept managing to get in the killing blow. The two Mandalorians kept taunting each other until finally Jayne shot Kage in the foot. Kage retaliated by firing on Jayne. The party managed to clean up the rest of the droids. As the battle ended, Hannik walked up to Kage and bitch-slapped him, calling him a fool. Kage was about to attack back when Nyx slammed him into the wall, yelling at both Mandalorians to stop bickering.

The argument was interrupted by a smug voice that suddenly echoed from the loudspeaker. Before it could get out more than a few words, Jayne shot out the loudspeaker. Kage then mooned the camera and shot it out too.

The party proceeded into the next area of the ship, a dining hall. The voice came from the loudspeaker again, addressing each of them by name before being shot out again.

From within a nearby room, the party heard several soldiers chatting. The party began to quietly plan how to deal with them. Suddenly Kage exclaimed “I know, let’s both throw grenades in there!” Unfortunately the soldiers heard this plan and the battle commenced. Kage and Jayne threw their grenades, doing decent damage to the 6 soldiers and commander who were inside. After a couple rounds of battle, Hannik got an idea and hacked into the door controls to slam them shut. He then fried the system with Force Lightning, ensuring that the doors would not reopen.

Leaving their captive prisoners behind, the group proceeded to the cargo bay, which was also guarded by several soldiers. Although they failed at sneaking up and gaining the element of surprise, the party nonetheless quickly dispatched the Republic soldiers. They searched through the cargo crates and discovered advanced items they could use. Jayne looted an advanced chainblade, Kage an advanced blaster carbine, Nyx some superior leather armor, and Hannik some advanced Force User robes.

Jayne and Kage started dismembering one of the dead soldiers, sticking various body parts into the cargo crates. Meanwhile Hannik and Nyx decided to check out the next room. They found a security room that was oddly empty, the stations all locked down. As they passed through and approached a set of sealed doors, a voice came over the loudspeakers again.

“Ah, I’m so glad you’ve finally found me. I’ve been dying to introduce myself. I am Jedi Master Alaric Atam, and I am the leader of a task force that has been formed specifically to deal with your actions. Many lives were lost as a result of the ship you rigged to explode. Today, you will pay for those lives with your own.”

Hannik and Nyx returned to the cargo bay to get Kage and Jayne, and then brought them to the door. “Why don’t you go ahead and let us in, then?” suggested Hannik. “Very well,” replied Alaric, and the doors opened.

In a flash, Alaric reached out with the Force, pulling Kage into the room and adjacent to him. He then slashed at the Mandalorian with his lightsabers, forcing Kage to leave an opening that Alaric’s apprentice, Nareka, quickly exploited. The combined attacks left Kage badly injured, and he spent a moment to apply a first aid kit, bringing him back to fighting condition. Four Republic soldiers in the back fired on Kage and Jayne, scoring a few hits.

“I’ll take out the soldiers!” yelled Jayne. “You guys deal with the Jedi.” He opened fire on the soldiers. Meanwhile, Hannik entered the room and he, Nyx, and Kage began attacking the apprentice. As Nareka was badly wounded by one of Hannik’s attacks, she let out a Force Scream, stunning nearly everyone in the room. Hannik recognized this as a Dark Side technique and saw an opportunity to convert the apprentice to the Dark Side. However, his words were not very persuasive. Kage tried to help but was cut down by Alaric, who urged his apprentice to ignore the words of the Sith.

Nyx stepped in to heal Kage, who continued to try to persuade Nareka to side with the party. He told her that the party had been told that this was not a Republic ship, and that they hadn’t realized that they were killing Republic soldiers. Nareka was conflicted, and stepped back from the fight for a moment.

Jayne had finished killing the soldiers and now focused his attention on Alaric, quickly bloodying the master. Seeing that he was fighting a losing battle, Alaric shoved everyone back with the Force and then ran for it. Kage and Hannik stayed to further convince Nareka while the rest of the party chased after Alaric.

“See!” said Kage. “Your master is a traitor.” “I knew it was wrong for him to be associating with that…that Sith!” exclaimed Nareka angrily. “He was the one that planted the distress signal so you’d come here.” Kage asked her the name of Alaric’s Sith ally. “Darth…Malictus I think it was,” she told him. Hannik recognized this as the name of the Sith warrior they had fought on Vance’s planet, and whom Kage had shot the hands off of.

Meanwhile, Alaric had reached his ship and taken off, likely intending to flee to his Sith ally on Korriban. The party chased after him…